Fundamental Physics for Probing and Imaging

Physics has reduced fear and increased safety for society, largely by extending the power to see. The methods used are magnetic resonance, ionising radiation and sound, with their extensions. This textbook expounds the fundamental physics of these. It follows how they are applied by moderntechnology to "seeing" in clinical medicine including therapy and in other spheres of human activity such as archaeology, geophysics, security and navigation. By taking a broad view over the whole field, the book encourages comparisons, underlines the importance of public education and reaches freshconclusions of some political importance concerning safety. This textbook has developed from a course given to third year students at Oxford and is written so that it can be used coherently as a basis for shorter courses by omitting certain chapters.

Professor Wade Allison
Physics Department and Keble College
University of Oxford
Oxford
OX1 3PG
Wade Allison is a Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford and a Tutorial Fellow of Keble College. His own field is Particle Physics to which he has made significant contributions to experiments on Quarks and Neutrinos and to the theory and application of the energy loss of relativistic charged particles in matter to the design and construction of particle detectors. He has lectured extensively on Electromagnetism and on Nuclear Structure Physics. A few years ago with Louis Lyons he initiated a course entitled ``Applications of Nuclear Physics'' from which grew the particular course that he currently lectures concerned with Medical and Environmental Physics. A growing interest in this course and an absence of suitable texts encouraged him to write this book.